The present invention relates to a new and improved method of determining the starting point and the end point of a spatial closed signal pattern in a time sequence of individual ones of such spatial closed signal patterns, each of which is constituted by a series of measuring signals, which are picked up by means of electrodes from a living being.
During a method as known, for example, from European Patent Publication No. 0,150,352 cognate with the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,976 and which method is particularly intended for determining the starting point and the end point of a QRS loop or wave within a vector cardiogram curve, there are defined in a first step, two time intervals for such QRS loop or wave. These time intervals are in correspondence with related sections of projections of vectorial representations of the QRS loop or wave onto predetermined planes of, for example, a triaxial coordinate system. The two points of such sections and which points have the shortest spatial distance with respect to each other, are designated as the zero points of the QRS loop or wave. The two points correspond to the starting point and the end point of the QRS loop or wave.
Using this previously known method it is possible to determine with high precision the starting points and the end points of the QRS loops or waves in vector cardiogram curves. However, this method requires relatively high computation expenditure because there must be determined the spatial distances between a relatively large number of sampled values of the digitized measured signals. Although high-capacity computers are capable of handling these computations efficiently, it is desirable to reduce the necessary computation expenditure.